iPhone moves a step closer to getting IM

A recent patent filing indicates that Apple is getting closer to adding its own instant messaging client to the iPhone.
he filing is titled "Portable Electronic Device for Instant Messaging," and covers methods for sending, receiving, and viewing ongoing conversations. The proposed GUI is similar to Apple's current interface for SMS.

Built-in support for IM has been missing from the iPhone, to the dismay of many users. The patent filing shows Apple has IM on its mind.

At the recent launch of the iPhone SDK, AOL demonstrated an AOL Instant Messenger client, but it isn't allowed to run in the background, which normal IM applications rely on.

Support for IM is quickly becoming a must on mobile phones. Users want the same thing on their mobile phone as they have on their computers including IM, according to Leif-Olof Wallin, research vice president at Gartner.

"It will be a blockbuster in two, three years," said Wallin.

But instant messaging is also a threat to the massive amounts mobile carriers make from SMS messaging, which the iPhone currently supports.

"They can charge much more for SMS compared to IM," said Wallin.

Pressure from its carrier partners is a possible explanation for why Apple has taken a hands-off approach to a feature many users want, according to Wallin.

"At the same time it can't afford to be left behind" he said.

Asustek to Share Eee PC at Taiwan Open Source Summit

Asustek Computer plans to share its experience with open-source software in its popular Eee PC low-cost laptop at the OpenTechSummit Taiwan 2008, which runs from April 25 to 29, the company said.

The Taiwanese PC vendor is the largest corporate sponsor of the event and is currently selling the most popular laptop that carries an open source OS, the Eee PC.

The company officially started selling the Eee PC last October in Taiwan, offering four different configurations from NT$7,000 (US$231) for the 2G-byte "Surf." They all run a Linux OS from Xandros of New York.

So far, Asustek said it has sold a million of the low-cost laptops, but it declined to break down the number of Linux versions sold versus the number of Eee PCs sold with Microsoft Windows XP.

The Linux OS has allowed the company to keep prices down on the laptops in two ways. First, open-source software comes at little or no cost, and second because the streamlined OS requires a bare minimum of hardware to run. It's been the same story as for the One Laptop Per Child Foundation (OLPC), which also uses a Linux OS in its XO laptop.

The foundation has been working with Microsoft to develop a streamlined version of XP that can be used in the XO with lower hardware requirements than full XP.

Microsoft earlier this month published new guidelines for designing ultra low-cost laptops for Windows XP.

Asustek launched its first Eee PC with Windows XP earlier this year, and said the OS had a big impact on sales. The company has forecast that two-thirds of the 5 million Eee PCs it expects to sell this year will run Windows XP, while the remainder will run a Linux OS.

Sales of the Eee PC have been strongest so far in Europe, where around 40 percent of all of the low-cost laptops have been shipped. The company expects that figure to rise to 50 percent later this year.

NetNewsWire RSS reader beta updated

Popular RSS reader NetNewsWire has been updated fixing a couple of bugs with the application.

According to the developer, two main issues have been fixed in NetNewsWire 3.1.6b1. First, the update fixes a memory leak affecting some users and the new version makes loading clippings at startup slightly faster.

NetNewsWire is compatible with RSS and Atom feeds, allowing users to keep up-to-date with new posting from around the Internet. The application features tabbed browsing, searching and the ability to download podcasts and other enclosures.

NetNewsWire 3.1.6b1 can be downloded from the developer's website.